Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq, vol 1 | Page 6

to the
numerous petitions of all the rest of the community. The Yeomanry
Cavalry, good souls they are in distress, and they want another CORN
BILL. But then you see his Majesty's Ministers, kind-hearted creatures,
and the considerate merchants, the Barings, and the Ricardos, they say
this must not be. By management the New Corn Bill gentry got a
majority: my Lord Castlereagh is quite shocked, and even Mr. Holme
Sumner, benevolent heart, he is quite astounded with the unexpected
and undeserved success of his own motion. Mark their proceedings

well, my friends--for you to petition I fear will be in vain, but mark
their proceedings. It so very much resembles the proceedings when the
last Corn Bill was passed, that I have little doubt there is foul play
going on somewhere. The farmers cannot pay their _rents, rates_, and
taxes unless they can do it by a rise in the price of the quartern loaf.
Baring and Ricardo do not approve of this--each of them has his
scheme for the relief of the general distress, agricultural and all. Baring
hints, but he only hints, at something tangible, he hints that rents
should be lowered, and his brother stock-jobber, Ricardo, proposes then
to pay off the national debt, by making the land-holders pay down at
once 15 per cent. upon the value of their estates. The Honourable
Members stare with astonishment at the propositions of these wise
law-givers--and well they may. Although the "game may be up;"
although the assertion of the editor of the Morning Post may be true,
"that the verdict against Henry Hunt has proved the overthrow of
thousands, and rendered twice as much service to the real interest of
social quiet, as ALL the other verdicts for the crown put together;" yet I
perceive by the language of a petition from the inhabitants of the town
of Kirkeaton, presented to the Honourable House by my Lord Milton,
that even the locking me up in a jail, in consequence of this verdict, has
neither contributed to remove the distress, nor to put food into the
mouths of the poor reformers of Kirkeaton. Good God of Heaven! what
must Lord Milton be made of to present, _merely present, mind_, a
petition shewing that 1729 of his constituents, in one parish had been,
and were living, or rather starving, upon 11 3/4d. each per week, that
the average income of 1729 human beings in that county, Yorkshire,
where he is their virtual representative, is under one shilling per head
per week?--Gracious God! the present member for this county, Sir
Thomas Lethbridge, once declared in the Honourable House, that the
language of Sir Francis Burdett made _"his hair stand on end upon his
head."_ To have seen Lord Milton present such a petition as this, to
have heard the officer of the Honourable House mumble out a
description, a recital of the privations and cruel sufferings of my poor
insulted fellow countrymen of Kirkeaton, without rising to say one
word in their behalf; without calling down the vengeance of Heaven
and Earth upon the heads of those who had by their acts reduced the
country to such a state of wretchedness and woe; to have witnessed this,

I say, although it might not have made my hair stand on end, it would, I
am sure, have chilled every drop of blood in my body. I can
conscientiously say, that the mere reading in the Times newspaper the
account of your cruel sufferings, my poor countrymen of Kirkeaton,
has given me more pain than a years' imprisonment would have done, if
I could have known that you were enjoying a fair equivalent for your
honest industry. Talk of imprisonment indeed! why it is a perfect
Paradise compared with the wants and privations which you are
doomed to endure. The situation of a prisoner in this jail, let him be
confined for any thing less than high treason or murder, is heaven upon
earth compared to your lot. Let us see; there is a prisoner who is
appointed to wait upon me here, an old soldier, who has enjoyed rank
in the army as an adjutant, but having a large family, and meeting with
many reverses of fortune, he became reduced in his circumstances, and,
in consequence of great persecutions, was at length driven to seek relief
from the parish. The sufferings and privations of his wife and children
daily stared him in the face, without even the hope of relief; and,
brooding over his unmerited persecutions and neglect, he was driven to
drinking, &c. In a fit of temporary delirium he attempted to lay violent
hands upon himself and wife, for which he is sentenced to be
imprisoned here for twelve months. His wife and family are supported
by the parish; and I